This Joint's For You: An Open Letter To Sheriff Sandra Hutchens About Medical Marijuana

would like to extend our heartfelt condolences about your recent diagnosis of breast cancer. We're glad, however, that you plan to remain in office while you seek treatment, since you're the best sheriff this county's ever had--and yes, we know that's not saying much.

But seriously, breast cancer is no joke, and we all hope you will experience a full and speedy recovery. That said, we have a serious question to pose: Have you considered smoking medical marijuana to treat the nausea and pain that typically accompanies cancer treatment?

"CBD is beginning to be recognized by researchers at mainstream medical institutions around the world as a potentially very powerful weapon against cancer," Badiner writes. "Researchers Sean D. McAllister and Pierre Desprez, who conducted studies of CBD's effect on cancer cells for California Pacific Medical Center, suggest that these non-psychoactive compounds from the cannabis plant might, in short order, render chemotherapy and radiation distant second and third options for cancer patients. Based on a more recent study, McAllister and Desprez feel that CBD's "could stop breast cancer from spreading."

I recently interviewed several severely ill Orange County residents with a group called Patient Med-Aid. Some of them were terminally-ill cancer patients, who smoke cannabis to treat their illnesses. They report that while marijuana may not cure them of their conditions, it at least gives them some solace and stops the pain.

It might work for you, too. And the good news is that, assuming you get a doctor's note allowing you to smoke cannabis in California, it's still not too late to find marijuana in Orange County. (Although it is getting harder and harder to do so, what with all those city bans on pot and raids by local, county, state and federal law enforcement officials).

If you think cannabis isn't for you, or that it would set a bad example for the rank and file, seeing as how you're OC's top cop, we understand. In that case, please get better, keep up the good work, and don't arrest any pot-smoking patients! As you can imagine, that's the last thing a sick person needs.

Award-winning investigative journalist Nick Schou is managing editor of OC Weekly. He is the author of Kill the Messenger: How the CIA’s Crack Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb (Nation Books 2006), which provided the basis for the 2014 Focus Features release starring Jeremy Renner and the L.A. Times-bestseller Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love’s Quest to bring Peace, Love and Acid to the World, (Thomas Dunne 2009). He is also the author of The Weed Runners (2013) and Spooked: How the CIA Manipulates the Media and Hoodwinks Hollywood (2016).